This past Wednesday and Thursday, the Dakota Access Pipeline protest camps were cleared
by more than 200 police officers in riot gear as part of an emergency
evacuation order signed by North Dakota governor Doug Burgum. Many of
the water protectors cleared out peacefully, and some set fire to their
camps as a ceremonial act of defiance to destroy it themselves before
law enforcement could.

Over the those two days, 46 water
protectors who refused to comply with the evacuation were arrested,
including a group of military veterans, reporting journalists, and even
an Oglala grandmother named Regina Brave. Present at the occupation of
Wounded Knee in 1973, Brave was also a vocal opponent to the Keystone XL
pipeline in recent years.

Even when water protectors are leaving
peacefully to move on to larger movements, North Dakota law enforcement
proved once again that they cannot do their jobs without abusing their
power. Arriving with armored vehicles, snipers and AR-15s is beyond
extreme, especially against those whose only “crime” is just refusing to
move or live streaming the eviction to Facebook, the latter being the
case for Eric Poemz as he was chased by police in his live stream and can be heard saying his hip may have broken as he was forced to the ground.

This amount of law enforcement is
unnecessary, especially when they go so far as to violate First
Amendment rights and try to silence anyone who tries to publicize the
truth.

After the camps were cleared, Energy Transfer Partners announced
that they finished drilling under Lake Oahe and will begin laying down
pipe. According to their attorney, William Shcerman, DAPL’s construction
could be finished and begin flowing oil in less than two weeks.

Things are not getting any better at the
White House as they try to pass off their blatant lies — or what they
call alternative facts — as truth. White House Press Secretary and
Communications Director, Sean Spicer, claimed in a recent press briefing
that President Donald Trump “has been in contact with all parties
involved” with DAPL. Shortly afterwards, Standing Rock Sioux Chairman,
Dave Archambault II, posted a response on Facebook
that that was ‘absolutely false.” The tribe only finally received a
meeting the day after the easement to drill under Lake Oahe was issued,
to which Archambault cancelled it and filed a lawsuit for the illegal
expediting and suspending of the environmental impact study.

Spicer’s briefing also contradicts Trump’s claims almost two weeks ago
that he didn’t find DAPL controversial and hasn’t received a single
phone call. Of course, he hasn’t been taking any phone calls given that
the comments line is down with only an automated message with
instructions to submit your comment on the White House’s website.

At this point, does the Trump administration think they’re that clever to make anyone believe anything they say?

To top all of this off, ABC News revealed
that two days before Trump approved of the easement, the US Department
of Interior withdrew a 35-page legal analysis — written by the
department’s top lawyer Hilary Tompkins — of the environmental risks and
treaty rights violations of DAPL with more than enough justification to
deny further construction.

Tompkins wrote that the Standing Rock
Sioux Tribe’s “core identity and livelihood depend upon their
relationship to the land and environment — unlike
a resident of Bismarck, who could simply relocate if the pipeline
fouled the municipal water supply, Tribal members do not have the luxury
of moving away from an environmental disaster without also leaving
their ancestral territory.”

So not only is the Trump administration
lying through their teeth about their involvement and active listening
in this controversy, but they are also willing to throw away anything
criticizing their biased personal interests as an attempt to avoid
accountability, no matter how irrefutable it is.

The camps may be shut down, but the fight against DAPL is far from over. Protests continue nationwide urging major banks to divest from DAPL, and a Native Nations March
is planned for March 10th in Washington DC and nationwide. Chase Iron
Eyes with LPLP plans to rally support for the new lawsuits filed by the
Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes.